Task #23

I really enjoyed looking at the tastespotting web site yesturday. I really like to cook and I can totally see myself getting good ideas from that site. I also like to play around with creative stuff so I also enjoyed googlesites. On my site I did my resume and I have to say that it looks sharp and I had fun doing it. Also the picnik was fun to play around in and it was so easy to use that I will probably be using that in the future.
I think that the most useful site were the ones about our web page and the wiki because I am still finding out things that I didn't know and that always puts me in a better position to help patrons.

Task # 22

I took a look at those site and I could see using life hacker for the possible tips I could pick up but I really like the idea of using tastespotting. While checking it out my mouth started watering. The pomegranate poached pears and the mini cheesecakes looked awesome. I am going to be using this site a lot. I was going to suggest www.allrecipies.com which is teh cooking site that I use most often. I like how they rate things and then have reviews because people usually say what they changed and how that made the recipe better and usually there are pictures. Also I like the site www.tnt.tv because I don't have a lot of channels and on this site I can watch reruns of the shows I like and they even have movies. Other than these site I don't really do much on the computer.

Task # 21

I was playing in Picnik and this is what I came up with. It was a lot easier than I had thought. I can definitely see myself using this in the future.

Task # 20

Well I tried finding my home on the Assessor's look up and it said that my home couldn't be found as it is a mobile home, which it's not. Then it gave me a highway map of Mesa County, not at all helpful. While doing this I looked at a couple other things that could come in handy. I found H1N1 influenza information which a lot of patrons are talking about. I saw that this is where you go to get a marriage license application and also that you can get birth and death records information from this site.

On the State of Colorado web page I found H1N1 information right off the bat. I like how they have it visible first thing when you go to that site. Also during tax season I got a lot of questions and there is tax information on this site and how to file online. I think that both of these things could be useful for patrons in the future.

I have a lot of ideas for inventions and so I looked at the copyright and patent trademark office. They have a very simply breakdown of how to patent something. I think that this could be a useful resource to some of our patrons who are thinking of writing a book. I know I will use this site in the future.

Task # 19

Yeah! I got a 100% on the test but I don't know that I would have found some of the answers without the hints given. I don't think that I would have had any clue where to find what trees MCPLD has on it's property. I think that this is a fun activity that maybe could be used more often. I know that a lot of people would hate to hear this but I think that the wiki has the potential to be a lot of help but as for me I get confused as to where to go for what and every time that I try and use the search tool it never comes up with anything. It would be great if the search engine searched for key words and not exact phrases.

Task # 18

http://www.promopeddler.com/00-05/pop-up-book-light-super-bright-light-qqp100312.htm is the URL that I used for "tiny URL" and http://tinyurl.com/ylax9fs this is what it was afterward. I don't know how much I would use this feature but I liked the set up. I thought it was really easy to use and providing that I needed to use it again it's easy to remember.
There was a problem converting a file from pdf to thumbnail when I tried to use Zamzar it could be just me though. I will try this again sometime. I have had patron's tell me that they can't view stuff on the computer because of the format so i can see where this website would be useful it just wasn't for me today.

Task # 17

I liked the 100 Best Blogs for Librarians best of the 4 different sites that I looked at because of the way that it was organized. I like that it categorized all the blogs and then gave a little synopsis of what is in the site so then you can narrow the options down to a few that look good. Then your not wasting your time trying to find what your looking for. Of the 4 that I looked at I liked Web Junction the least because it was so packed full of stuff that it makes it hard to look at without zoning out. Sometimes with sites like that I have too many things to look at and don't know where to start. I liked the site about Library Job postings and it honestly is the only one that I can see using in the future if I were going to move. I think that it's cool that you can narrow your search by state. I did see that they had blogs, on the 100 best blogs site, that offered Green library info and I might check that out in the future too.

Task # 16

Openoffice seems like it would be good for projects and such for school or letters or reports. I really like to use Word Art and Clip Art a lot and I don't see options for this in the openoffice program. It could just be that I need to become more acclimated with the software. It seems to have a lot of different fonts to use which is another feature that I use often.

When I first started using Word 2007 I didn't like it because I wasn't used to it but now that I am I really like the way it's set up with the changing tool bars and all so I would say that I would waste the money on getting word 2007 because this is available for use.

I am writing this on openoffice and I like that it does an auto spell check because my spelling is atrocious.

As far as open source goes I think that it's a good idea because there is the opportunity to have so many different perspectives. I do get a little concerned because it seems that when you have open source programing there is the opportunity for someone to provide false, inaccurate, or bad information.

I have been throwing around the idea of going back to school and I come to the conclusion that I will go back and I can completely see using this resource when I do.

I am having trouble copy and pasting from openoffice to my blog. It's doing it but it gave me hassles. Just something to consider.

Task # 15

I think that clip marks is a cool idea but I guess I don't see how it's any better than book marking a page that you want to come back to. I just tried to use it with the CAL conference because I thought that I could clip the schedule but since it's an excel document I was unable to. I just posted a clipmark to my facebook just to give it a try so I googled green libraries and posted a paragraph about a library in Ohio to my facebook. I will play around with this and see what else they have to offer but I don't think this is something that I will use often because if there is a site that I want to read I will just bookmark it until I can get to it. I was curious how people got those things on Facebook and I am guessing it's because of something like this.

Task # 14

I have done the training for Netlibrary and Over drive and yet I still have the most problems with them. I tried to download "One for the Money" to my work computer after waiting quite a while for it to download I got a message that said that "We could not issue a license because my security settings prevented and ActiveX..." So I tried to do this task but I came up short. I thought that it was easy enough to search and find what I was looking for and it was easy enough to download it but I had troubles when it came to listening to it.
I also was on Over drive and I was able to put a book on hold so hey that's something. It seems like they don't have a great selection because I tried to put "One for the Money" on hold but they didn't have it. I also tried to do "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and they didn't have that either. So Net Library seemed like there were more options but it wouldn't work for me and Over drive was easier to use but less selections so I guess there is good and bad with everything.
I really want to be good at doing this because this is something that patrons have asked for and I would love to be able to just rattle off answers. So I am going to keep working on this.

Task # 13

I am so irritated right now! I am on soundsnap.com and I have created 2 free accounts and on both of them it's not recognizing the username and password that I created. The first time I did it I thought maybe I made a mistake and so I created another account with my personal e-mail account and then tried to get in and it said that I didn't have the correct username or password. That's bogus! So I am done trying.
I think that these sounds would be cool (if you can access them) on the kids web site and have different sounds for the different things that people are doing. So for example if a kid is on the site and not doing anything perhaps the cricket sound could come on or if too many buttons were used at one time the gazoinks sound from scooby doo would be cool. Things like this to make the site a little more interactive would be neat.
I tried Droga Dluga Jest on Last FM and even though they aren't my style I still like how there was a music video playing at the same time. It's like your own personal MTV only without all that crappy programming.
I like the way that jamendo is set up for browsing but I like that Last FM has a video for you to watch while you listen.
I will definitely offer up the free music downloads to those folks who always order lots of music but I can't see a way to market the soundsnap to folks especially as I can't figure out how to use it myself.
Okay, wonders never cease. I figured out sound snap and I successfully downloaded the night crickets. Yay. I still didn't love my experience.

Task # 12

When I first started to work at the library I tried to use the novel list and I didn't have much success and so I started to just use google, but today when I tried it, it was a snap. Not only was it a snap but it is fun! I looked up Michael Crichton in author read-alikes and it didn't just give similar but told why it is that they are similar. It offered authors such as Dan Brown who mix science and fact with fiction in a similar way to Crichton.
I also looked up series. I did Harry Potter and Twilight and they were a snap, listing them with their publication date, so guaranteed I will use this in the furture.
The recommended reads page seems really useful because several times patrons came in with a genre but no title. I do wish this page had a genre for books without strong language and sexual content because that seems to be the statement I hear the most from patrons. Either I didn't like this book because there was strong language or I'm looking for a book without sexual content. It's still a great page but that would make it perfect.
I think that in the future I will use novel list for all of the things we have gone over in the exercise and you can bet that I will look around and see what else it has to offer. I feel bad that I held a grudge after my first experience.

Task # 11

I checked out The book report network and I personally would only use it for the Author Yellow Pages because I thought that it was easy to use however, I feel like it would be just as easy to google the author. I really thought thought that the Graphic Novel Reporter pages was the site that was put together the best. I think that with all the animation graphics on the site that it was the most visually appealing, I'm just not that into graphic novels.

I chose to look up Ken Follett on Biaography Resource Center because one of his books "Pillars of the Earth" is one of my favorite books. Apparently he is one of the youngest millionaire authors which I think is an interesting fact. I also think that it's interesting that he used to be a reporter and when he first started writing, he wrote under pseudonyms and based his his stories loosely on the cases he covered as a reporter. It was kind of funny because in this article Bookreporter.com was quoted. Best of both worlds I guess.

Task #10

Well I just had to find the gossip about Angelina Joli and so I looked her up on the Master file premier and it initially turned up 4 hits and it asked if I meant to look up Angelina Jolie so I clicked on it and then it turned up 2059 hits. While looking at what it had turned up I came across an interesting article about voluntourism.

Then in the Biography Resource Center I checked out several folks. Janet Evanovich and I got 4 hits. Then I looked up Stephenie Meyer and I got 11 hits. Finally I looked up Micheal Crichton and I got 10 hits.

Task # 9

http://sites.google.com/site/randalee79/ This is the URL to my website. I did my resume because I thought that it would be easy to create a web site from because then I could create a page for each of the categories.
I like all the options for layout but I wanted to do cool things to it and I couldn't figure out how to do that, but I got all the basics. I had initially tried to do my site on Weebly because it seems that Time wouldn't have written about it if it wasn't good but I had trouble with this site. When I tried to add pages the information would go from page one to the next one instead of starting with a fresh slate. Anyway I thought it was confusing so I switched to Google sites. I like doing this sort of thing and so I had fun with this and if I had more time I would add some animation and fun stuff like that. I hope you like it.

Task #8

Well Creative Commons seems like a good idea in theory. I tried to check out Pink, Fleetwood Mc, and Sheryl Crow with Jamendo but I didn't find much of anything except obscure references with one of the words in the title. I did however check out images on Flickr and I think that this could be a really usefull resource for our advertising. For example when the Orchard Mesa Branch did a Harry Potter moviethon we could have founds pictures for the posters with Creative Commons.
I can see how this would be useful information for patrons and in fact I already told one patron about it because he puts so many CDs on hold that I knew that he had to be burning them so I let him know about creative commons.
I tried to go through the Case Studies page and see who is licensed with Creative Commons but I had trouble finding anything so I will talk with someone else and see what I am doing wrong but I have to say that it's a little user unfriendly.

Task #7

Well I checked out all the web sites and I decided to go with Shelfari. The set up seemed the easiest, but once I started to get an account it asked for more than say Library Thing whose only requirements where a user name and password. I was surprised when Shelfari asked me not only for my e-mail address but my e-mail account password. Other than that I thought the set up was great. It seems easy to understand and I like the layout. I have to say I wouldn't even be interested with All Readers because it didn't even look warm and inviting. If I am going to stare at a computer I would prefer to look at something attractive.

Good Reads page was kind of like All Readers in that I just don't like to look at it. My main reasons for using these types of web pages would be finding something new to read, keeping a list of books I want to read in the future and keeping track of the books I have read. I wouldn't be at all interested in blogging about what I have read and that was the first thing that popped up, people blogging. A good reads page for Mesa County Libraies might be a good idea but I wouldn't be stoked about contributing. Sorry. I think that if we added good reads then we are offering more resources in a couple different ways but I think that I like our Book Blog better because it's not so cluttered. I like that there isn't as much to distract you with the Mesa County Book Blog. When I look at the Boulder good reads page it just seems like there is so much going on that I wouldn't know where to begin.
My personal opinion is that if there are too many resources then some folks might get overwhelmed and between facebook and book blog MCPLD has all of it's bases covered. I wonder if there is a way to set up a group on the MCPLD facebook account where people can go and talk about books they are reading or have read.

Task #6

I like that libraries are a source of information and that they try and give patron's information in the way that suits them best. I also agree that customer service has a lot to do with whether or not someone has a good experience and decides to come back. That thought is only slightly intimidating.

Task # 5

Well I tried using bookbag a while ago and didn't have much luck with it but this time it seemed to work quite well. I think it's a great feature because sometimes patrons come in and they want every book in a series and this way you only have to enter it once, providing the bookbag feature works. Normally I just do holds from the catalogue and that works just fine but for multiple holds the bookbag would be quicker.

Task #4

I love Facebook! I have recently reconnected with so many people but I only have 91 friends which I thought was good until I checked out Obama and myself and the Smithsonian (2,456 friends) can't even compete with his 6,595,501 friends.
I think that social networking sites are great for folks who are off on adventures and there isn't a lot of internet access, because then you can let everyone know what you're doing without having to write each individual person, which could take up quite a bit of time. i just wish that I had known about them when I was in the Peace Corps, live and learn.

Task #3

Wow what a quiz that was! I had such problems with the question about when the library foundation was started and I tried to look under the Library Bill of Rights (I was grasping at straws) and found that the page couldn't be displayed. I only got 93 percent because I didn't look at the rest of the answers. C'est La Vie!

Task #2

I love pandora and I would just like to say that it's not just for new songs but also for the oldies as well. I just listened to an old salt and pepper song that I have heard in many years.

Task #1

Well the first task was relatively painless. I know that new technology is great and all but it always intimidates me, which is why I haven't done this sooner.